There has been a dramatic increase in health consciousness during recent years, as well as the desire to appear fit and trim. Health benefits associated with regular exercise are well known, and many methods of exercise have been developed to achieve this end. Common methods of exercising include home workout gyms, treadmills, bicycling, running, walking, and jogging. Though these methods have proven beneficial, the equipment is costly and nonmobile, and the person exercising often wishes to utilize weights to supplement running or jogging in order to firm and tone particular muscles. To meet this goal, user's often resort to barbells, or other forms of hand-held weights.
In an effort to make the exercise regimen more efficient, allowing for a more hands-free experience, there have emerged a variety of exercise garments. One such garment is the weighted vest. The conventional weighted vest generally includes a front and back panel that are adjustably attached together to form a body vest that is worn on the upper torso of a person. The weighted vest further includes a number of chambers that are configured to retain weights. The chambers are equally situated about the vest so as to distribute the retained weight evenly about the user. The use of these conventional vests have been found to quickly tone and firm muscles, and provide aerobic benefits as well.
The existing weighted vests, however, are not without certain drawbacks. Many weighted vests include compartments dimensioned to permanently retain weights. The permanently fixed weights do not allow a user to shift the weight from one compartment to another so as to target specific muscles of the body, if desired. Other weighted vests provide pockets that are used for particular items, such as camping or hiking equipment, which are extraneous to the issue of weight training. Other drawbacks include weighted vests that do not accommodate the use of standard gym free weights. Many weighted vests require the use of preformed weights that are specifically tailored to correspond to the dimension and capacity of each vest compartment, thus requiring a user to separately transport special weights.
Additional shortcomings of some conventional vests is that many vest include a number of buckles, straps, or laces that must be adjustably attached together to secure the vest on the upper torso of the user's body. The buckles, straps or laces are frustrating, and time consuming to attach, and often come loose when an athlete is moving resulting in the vest shifting and the weights swinging about the user. The buckles, straps and laces also come loose and rub, bruise or chaf about the torso or hip area of the wearer. Additionally, conventional designs of current vests do not include comfortable features that permit a user wearing the vest to interact with other exercise equipment, such as weight-lifting devices.
Accordingly, there is a need for a weighted vest that, in addition to increasing the benefits of weight and aerobic training, eliminates the necessity of users transporting their own weights to the gym, by allowing the use of standard gym free weights that are removeably retained within receiving pockets. There is also a need for a weighted vest that provides protection and comfort to a user when using weight-lifting equipment, is compact, easy to carry and store, is securely and easily adjustable, and inexpensive to manufacture.